Currently, most commerce is conducted using traditional methods well known for many decades. Over sixty billion paper checks are written each year, the majority by businesses. Recently, however, electronic commerce has rapidly been emerging as a new and important force in global transactions. Online transactions over the past several years have achieved healthy levels and show no signs of letting up. Yet, while various systems for electronic transactions have been proposed or implemented (including credit card payment systems over the Internet and so forth), numerous disadvantages and shortcomings exist in the systems present in the art. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a new system for conducting electronic commerce and for improving the efficiency of financial and other interactions.